STEM training needs to start in kindergarten, local businessman says

At one station, students excitedly followed robots roaming the gymnasium floor.

At another, they stood in rapt attention as they learned how a powerful adhesive works.

Groups were enthralled as one demonstrator blew smoke from his nose, like a fire-breathing dragon.

The goal of the first Early Genius K-4 STEM event at Stadium Drive Elementary was to get students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at a young age.

Based on the enthusiastic exclamations, hands busy at work, and wide eyes around the school Friday, it seemed to succeed.

The two-day event, which the school organized in partnership with Ken Timmings, owner of KTSDI, a North Lima engineering company that services the trucking industry, and father of a Stadium Drive student, featured more than 20 volunteers from manufacturing businesses and STEM program providers.

Timmings’ work has often brought him to European countries, where he says STEM curriculum is taught much earlier than in the U.S.

“They get these kids at kindergarten,” he said. “Our model right now in the States is to grab these kids when they go to high school. That’s not early enough,” he said.